Week Four Stress Fracture

I have not run in 26 days. When I write that it seems  inconsequential but it feels like years instead of days. Since breaking my foot I have either swam, deep water ran, rowed or biked every day, often a combination of 2 or 3 activities because I cannot get the intensity of running.

I have been a bit depressed because everyone I spoke to that had food fractures told me it hurt for a few days and that was it. Mine hurts 24/7. My third metatarsal broke clear though. It swells up my foot and I have a big red bump on top.  I feel like I am constantly being stung by a bee. My x-ray at day 1 and 14  showed no healing but today I went to a new doc. Dr. Donald Rose, orthopedist to the stars of dance, most notably Alvin Ailey. One of my colleagues was a prima for Ailey and knows all the best doctors. It turns out that Rose was also PhD.D dissertation adviser for another one of my colleagues.  I knew I would be well taken care of. He was excellent. He thoroughly checked out my foot, took three x-rays, showed me everything, went over it and made some changes in my orthopedic boot. Man, I hate this boot. I clearly saw the break and the healing, even a novice could pick it out the x-ray was so clear. So I feel much better seeing that my bone is healing.

In the meantime I am desprete to keep my  fitness. I am on the 9 week Pfitzinger deep water running plan. I am swimming and begin a master swim stroke clinic on July 2. It meets 3x a week all the way through August at the 14th street Y in Manhattan. After 25 coached swims I will have to be a more fit and a stronger swimmer. I am not a good swimmer. I never had lessons and taught myself by doing it and having friends give me pointers. I also discovered Concept 2 rowing. Wow I love rowing. This is almost as good as running. I was rowing like mad every day and met with a coach. But I was also really torquing my feet so I have to lay off it for a bit. In it’s place I am using a hand-cycle and that is really fun too. I think most people feel hand-cycling is only for rehab,  but this thing is awesome. Again one of my colleague’s from the PT division told me to try it for cardio and it’s great. And technically I am in rehab, working out the rest of my body while by bone heals.

This weekend is Pride. I get to watch my Front Runner teammates run the Gay Pride Race. I hate standing on the sidelines. I planned on winning our teams master division this year. I guess it is not a good idea to plan on winning, one never knows what may happen.

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No more grinning

I put off updating my blog because I did not want to admit that I ran myself into the ground and have been given a forced leave of absence. One thing I have never really worried about is stress fractures. I am not sure why I did not worry, a huge number of my team mates have or have had them and now it is my turn. After a robust spring of setting new PR’s in the 10K, 45:51, the 4 mile, 28:27 and Cross Country 23:03 I got sidelined on Memorial Day. And I had such an awesome X-C race on May 18th. With over 100 runners, two college teams and one high school team I came in 5th female overall and first in the 40-49 AG. I won a carrot muffin! That was the best race prize ever – well not really I do like winning the money.

My week went like this. Thursday  I raced X-C, Friday I ran 8 miles easy, Saturday I ran 10 hard, Sunday 8 easy  and Monday I was out for a 15. At mile 3 the ball of my left foot hurt so I stopped, took off my shoe and loosened it up. But instead of feeling better it  hurt, so I put my shoe back on and walked home. During the walk I knew I broke it. The whole way back I was planning which doctor I would call, what PT’s I would schedule and what my workouts would look like.

At 8:30 Tuesday morning I called Dr. Greg Rock who was recommended by Coach Kelsey. I saw him at 11:00 and he was far more interested in  doing bunion surgery  than any boring old fracture. He finally let it go when I said, “I have the NYC marathon in November, Boston in April, and Trans Rockies in August, when do you suppose you would remove the bunions which cause me no pain what so ever.”  He x-rayed my foot  but nothing showed up as predicted. He will x-ray again on June 9th. But he said, “I know right where it is, HERE,” and pinched my third metatarsal. Gee, I hope seeing me almost hit the ceiling confirmed that.  I did not push for an MRI,  I could not walk so it really did not matter. If the next  x-ray does not show the callusing on the bone I will get an MRI. I saw Rock all of 4 minutes and walked out with my tail between my legs and a boot on my foot.

After hanging out at home with the dogs on Wednesday I put everyting into order. Dogs had to get boarded in upstate NY since I cannot walk them. PT evaluation set for thursday with rehab on Friday. Book pool rehab with second PT the following Monday, Wednesday and Friday. And swimming every day. I love my health care professionals! I love NYC with all it’s amenitites!

When I got up Thursday, I made a  feeble attempt to walk the dogs. I only took them to the corner and back upstairs. The PT I saw is at Long Island University where I teach. I went there because I wanted to use the super cool therapy pool. An endless pool with a elevating floor, video camera, an underwater treadmill to 8.5 mpr, 7:04 pace, and it is 94 degrees. I am really looking forward to running 7:00 pace at 94 degrees with water resistance! And since we have a great fitness center  I went early and worked out in the gym and swam for an hour.

My main concern is not losing fitness so I have put together a regiment of deep water running on the Pfitzinger schedule. I am also doing PT 3-4 times a week, strength training to varying levels 5 days a week and swimming at least 3 days a week.  I will take advance of this time to become a better swimmer. Other things that I have managed to accompish in my “down time” is get a hair cut,  get new glasses, clean my apartment and grocery shop, you know (or maybe you don’t) those things “normal” people do. If you asked me why I think I got a stress fracture I would say, I have been eating  poorly meaning; very little, not taking my supplements, not getting enough sleep, and basically not taking care of myself. I had a bad cold  for a week which kept me out of work and in bed, except for when I woke up and ran.    So did it just happen out of bad luck,maybe maybe not.  I neglected my self care, I knew it and others saw it and had commended, my boss in particular.  So now I have lots of self care time.

A final note. The two photos on this page are from two different 10k races a couple of weeks apart.  It rained like crazy during both races and  we got soaked, all 7,000 – 8,000 runners yes that is 8,000 per race!

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